Thursday, May 8, 2014

"our prayers were answered when the French came"

These youngsters have really big dreams (why not? you are only young once). It is important to have their voices heard and it is also takes remarkable courage to take a public stand.

Top Lines: [Obvious things that still need to be said out loud] Some Muslims here think it is OK to burn churches or temples because
they believe that Christians and Buddhists are wrong. But actually they
are the ones that are wrong.

[Harsh but true] I can say that an uneducated girl is worthless.

[Food for thought for western liberals] Our father
told us to pray day and night for the liberation of Timbuktu. Our
prayers were answered when the French came.

[Our thoughts in a nutshell] When I grow up, I want
to be free … to wear what I like, to move about without restrictions, be
able to drive a scooter, go to work, be independent and not be stuck at
home. I think that can only come if I and all the girls in Pakistan get
education.

[This is where change must happen] Some parents marry off their daughters even while they're in school
as a way of reducing their burden, or because they don't want the girls
getting big ideas about the future.

[You go girl]If I was one of them, the only thing I
would think about after I was released would be revenge. That would make
me do so many things, even kill someone maybe.

We searched online so she could read the story and when she finished
the one about the Boko Haram leader she was like: "This man is insane.
It's inhumane."

And,
you know, it is also heartbreaking for me that Muslims can get really
wrong ideas about our God. They are giving Islam a bad name. It's not
just Boko Haram, but al-Qaida too. They use our religion to justify
abducting schoolgirls and being terrorists.

I think they have
misconceptions about Islam. Sometimes it happens here in Indonesia too.

Some Muslims here think it is OK to burn churches or temples because
they believe that Christians and Buddhists are wrong. But actually they
are the ones that are wrong. In the holy book, the Qur'an, it says that we should not discriminate against people.

A girl must get a schooling because she can build herself and be
independent. An educated girl can do good to her parents and her
children in future. I can say that an uneducated girl is worthless.

Going to school is important to me because I want to be chief
prosecutor of the international criminal court, like Fatou Bensouda. We
need more justice in Africa.

My
school was closed for nearly two years when the jihadists occupied
Timbuktu. They used the school as a firing range and chopped up the
desks for firewood.

The men who have taken the Nigerian
schoolgirls are the same types as we had here. You cannot called them
Muslims. They are just criminals. We had thought they were nice people
but what we saw went far beyond the limits of Islam. They raped and beat
girls. There were unwanted pregnancies. If they saw a girl who was not
properly dressed they would take her away to the prison. I never went to
their prison but I heard there was a mattress in the prison with a
blanket and a mosquito net, and when they had finished with the girl
they would send her home. People thought she had been imprisoned but
actually she had been raped.

My father, who is a Marabout
[traditional Muslim preacher, considered heretical by fundamentalists],
made me and my four sisters stay at home. We did household chores and
read the Qur'an. If we went out it was for quick errands, never after
dark. We had to wear those big veils that they imposed on us.

Our father
told us to pray day and night for the liberation of Timbuktu. Our
prayers were answered when the French came.

School is important
but even in peacetime we do not have the equipment and means – like
electricity or computers – to study to high standards. During the
occupation, one of my teachers organised secret lessons at his house. He
was very brave because he taught girls and boys together. But he had to
stop after the jihadists came to his house one day.

We went back
to school in November last year but my school has only six teachers and
more than 1,000 pupils. A few weeks before we went back to school there
was a suicide car bombing on the army barracks just 100 metres from
Bahadou. Flying debris punched a hole in the roof. It was them again.

We
are still frightened. Even now there are regular rumours that a
jihadist pick-up has been seen or whatever. When that happens we are all
sent home.

It is easier to be a boy than a girl. Many girls get
married really young. If they want to continue to go to school they have
to defy their husbands. That is a sin so you would not do it. Marriage
is a gift from God but if you are a girl you must resist it for as long
as possible.

I dream of being a doctor when I grow up so I must study. In the
Pashtun community to which I belong, even today, many girls my age are
not allowed to study. I feel lucky to have parents who work hard so I
can. I think education can bring about change in the mindset of the
people, hopefully in the next generations.

When I grow up, I want
to be free … to wear what I like, to move about without restrictions, be
able to drive a scooter, go to work, be independent and not be stuck at
home. I think that can only come if I and all the girls in Pakistan get
education. We will be stronger and have a more powerful voice and the
government will then have to pay heed. I think if I continue my
education I can be whatever I want.

I really wish Pakistan could
be a more women-friendly place where perpetrators are punished for their
crimes, especially those who do bad things to girls – like rape. I
recently saw on television how a girl set herself on fire after the
police set the accused free.

It is lack of education that has led
to the way our society views a girl – just someone who needs to be
married off. Even girls, once they reach my age, begin to think of
marriage. Little do they or their parents know the value of a girl.

To think of an army of men kidnapping so many girls, it's horrific.

What
would their parents be going through? I just shudder to think if I were
in their place. Even if some people hate girls going to schools, I
don't feel scared.

I know the Taliban think seeking western education is
against Islam, but they are so wrong. How can any form of education be
harmful? In any case we are taught Islamiyat [Islamic teachings] in
school.

After what happened to Malala [Yousafzai], I know they can
attack me or anyone they take a dislike to, but I don't quite feel
scared or threatened.

Many people say having sons is luckier and
that daughters are a burden but that is not the case in my home. I love
cricket and want to be a cricketer too. I play in school and I don't
think it's a sport only for boys.

I would love to play cricket on the
street like boys in my neighborhood do. I envy them but that is just
not a done thing here, at least not in my neighborhood and that is when
I feel being a girl is a disadvantage in Pakistan.

We go to school and come back peacefully. But the biggest difference is
the uncertainty of our dreams. A lot of my classmates have been married
off. Some parents marry off their daughters even while they're in school
as a way of reducing their burden, or because they don't want the girls
getting big ideas about the future. Some husbands don't allow their
wives to continue going to school. The problem is this: you don't know
when this marriage is coming. You don't know when your education might
be cut short. For most women, marriage cuts education short, whereas
boys are allowed to go to university.

My sisters, except one who is a dentist, all went abroad for their
university. My uncles told my mother: 'You are a non-Muslim, you became a
Christian, because your girls are studying abroad.' But my mother
doesn't care what people say. She is proud of us and my school [School
of Leadership Afghanistan]. And I am really proud of my mother. My
father died when I was one and she raised and educated us all on her
own.

I think of those girls who were kidnapped, how much
pressure they must be under. If I was one of them, the only thing I
would think about after I was released would be revenge. That would make
me do so many things, even kill someone maybe.
.....